Today has been an extremely exciting day for the Rutland Osprey Project! The first osprey was seen in Rutland, and to add to the excitement the first bird back was identified as Maya the Manton Bay osprey, this meant that her return was broadcast live for all to see via webcam. This is the earliest we have ever had a bird back in Rutland, as the birds usually return around the 17th March. We are not sure what has caused this early return, but it will be very interesting to see when the other ospreys make their way back to Rutland. We are still tracking our tagged bird and hope to have an update for you tomorrow.

This was a great start to the 2018 osprey season and added to the excitement of World Osprey Week (WOW). Ken Davis, from the education team, has written a great blog detailing the events of the first day of WOW.

World Osprey Week Day 1: Maya is back, and Catmose Primary are WOW’d.

Monday March 12th 2018 : An unbelievable, brilliant day! A visit to Catmose Primary School in Oakham on the first day of World Osprey Week was exciting anyway, but what happened afterwards as we were making for home was absolutely fantastic! ‘There’s an Osprey eating a trout on the nest in Manton Bay’ was the simple message……..Who could it be? Bit early for Maya, said someone. ‘Awaiting confirmation’ said the next post. ‘Keep your eye on the website….’

The Education Team (Jackie, Pete and Ken) had just completed whole school assembly for over 200 boys and girls (aged 5 – 11) at Catmose Primary School in Oakham, just a few kilometres from Manton Bay. This is an excellent school, and everyone was very quickly involved as we showed our pictures and described the famous Ospreys these very lucky children have right on their doorstep every summer. We explained very carefully why there were no Ospreys in the Bay right now because they were still making their way back from their wintering grounds in west Africa or Southern Spain……little did we know what was going on in the Bay! Members of the audience answered our Osprey questions and were eager to hear about every part of the great Osprey story, including nest, rings, trackers, and every single detail. You could hear a pin drop in the hall……apart from every time someone mentioned World Osprey Week, which led to a hearty shout of WOW! – which was probably heard back at the Bay! And as a special treat at the end, we played the famous Osprey Song, performed by the children of Hurst Lodge School in Ascot (find it on You-Tube). And that’s not all – Headteacher Mrs Jackson announced that four trips are to be arranged in the summer term so that every single student in Key Stage 2 (and that’s about 120!) can come over to Manton Bay and see the Ospreys for themselves. Yet more and more ‘WOW’s’ – it’s been a WOW morning, and this is a WOW school – thank you for your great welcome and enthusiasm! We three have had a great time – hope you all did too! And we’ll see you all again later in the year!

And then everything else started to happen! It must have been just as were finishing, in the later part of the morning, that those messages started coming through…..It was possible, just possible, that on the very first day of World Osprey Week 2018, an Osprey, a very special Osprey called Maya, had completed her homeward journey, and was enjoying her first Rutland trout in six months! Welcome home Maya! You couldn’t have timed it better!!